This invention relates to wrenching devices and more particularly to a socket assembly which can accommodate a range of wrenching surface sizes so as to reduce the number of sockets necessary to handle a total range of wrenching surface sizes.
Turner U.S. Pat. No. 1,033,358 which issued July 23, 1912 utilizes different sets of sectional head members which may be placed in different slots of a wrench to operate on different size nuts. The wrenching head members are readily interchanged with other items, such as taps.
Sayre U.S. Pat. No. 1,058,795 which issued Apr. 15, 1913 presents a ratchet-wrench with a removable member adapted to be associated with the head of the wrench whereby the wrench may be applied to nuts of various sizes.
Pearson U.S. Pat. No. 1,997,948 which issued Apr. 16, 1935 teaches a socket wrench which automatically adapts itself to nuts and bolt heads of different sizes. This is accomplished by means of spring loaded nested sockets of different sizes.
Hurst et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,875 which issued July 16, 1985 discloses an adjustable socket having telescoping wrenching shims. A lever controls the number of shims which are permitted to move.
Tien U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,594 which issued Mar. 3, 1987 teaches a wrench socket for square and hexagonal wrenching surfaces. The socket is closed and is defined by eight right angled notches for reception of a driving head. The notches have a square opening of four notches equally spaced and sized to engage the square nut or bolt, and a hexagonal opening of six notches for engagement with a hexagonal wrenching surface.
Kelly et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,029 which issued Oct. 13, 1987 discloses a wrench socket having an end to receive a driving wrench in an internal drive opening, a driving end for engaging a threaded fastener to transmit a driving torque and an intermediate external surface area which can be engaged by a second driving wrench. A removable retainer assures that the second wrench is held on the socket, and a series of sockets may be provided which have various sized driving ends.
The present invention distinguishes over the prior patents mentioned above.
It is an important object of the present invention to provide a socket assembly which automatically accommodates itself in use to wrenching surfaces of a plurality of sizes.
It is another important object of the invention to provide a set of such socket assemblies of varying sizes such that the number of sockets needed to handle a total range of wrenching surface sizes is reduced with respect to the prior art.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a socket which can be used on either hexagonal or square wrenching surfaces.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide such a socket which can be used on wrenching surfaces dimensioned in any system such as Metric or English.
It is a still further important object of the invention to provide such a socket assembly which is of economical construction.
It is still another object of the invention to provide such a socket assembly which is reliable in operation.
The above and other objects and advantages will become evident hereinafter.